


And when I saw you

by Justsomeone99



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, I'm sorry I wanted to write this, Kind of happy ending, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, POV Sam Wilson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justsomeone99/pseuds/Justsomeone99
Summary: The first time Sam Wilson saw colors, was when Steve hit the Winter Soldier so hard that it took off his mask and googles.When Bucky found his soulmate, he didn’t react at first, he couldn’t. His mind screamed, he wasn’t even himself in that moment, he was certain he didn’t even know what a soulmate was right then.
Relationships: (Past) Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
Kudos: 45





	And when I saw you

**Author's Note:**

> I always wante to write a Soulmate fic. So I did this, is not the best but I need it to write it.

When Sam Wilson was a child his parents told him everything about soulmates, apparently out in the world there was a person who he was destined to be or something like that, true love or whatever, he wasn’t exactly paying attention, love wasn’t a priority to a six-year-old kid. Then his parent noticed his lack of interest, and told him something amazing, colors. Apparently, things weren’t all gray, there were colors and the first-time soulmates saw each other eyes they suddenly starting seeing colors. Now Sam was interested, he wanted to meet his soulmate immediately, screw love he wanted colors, he could draw better things if he knew the colors, and finally his crayons would make sense (since right now he had seven different shades of gray plus one black crayon and one white one).

He was very disappointed when they told him that normally people find their soulmates when they were adults.  
The first time Sam Wilson saw colors, was when Steve hit the Winter Soldier so hard that it took off his mask and googles. In the middle of the fight, when Steve got paralyzed seeing his long-lost best friend, Sam saw blue eyes looking at him for a brief second. Then everything else exploded in colors. The red, white and blue shield. The intense red of Natasha’s hair. The blonde of Steve’s hair. Even the deep black of the Winter Soldier suit seemed different. _Great_ he thought, _my soulmate is a mass murderer_.

He kept the reveling of his soulmate at secret, he wasn’t sure if the Wint— Bucky, apparently, had been affected the same way he was affected. He knew that was a possibility, sometimes, life sucked and a person could find they soulmate, but they weren’t the other person’s soulmate. 

Life with color was something else. He tried to be subtle, but he was amazed by the rich colors of everything, the green of the leaves that even if they were form the same tree the variegated in different shades of green. The blue of the sky at middle day, and how it slowly turned orange, red, pink even purple, before giving pass to the dark night, that almost never was one hundred percent black. 

“So… Who is it?” One day Natasha asked him, with a sly grin on her face.

“Who is who?” He wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“Your soulmate” His shocked expression made her smile wider.

“How did you find out?”

“You stare at things; you have been using different shirts like you suddenly know the colors of everything you own. And I tested you…” She seemed really pleased with herself. 

“So that time my shirt had two stains of blue paint, it had been you” And all the strange traces if color he had founded in the past days. She was good.

“A person unable to see colors wouldn’t have noticed, the stains followed the pattern of your shirt perfectly” She explained “So, who is it?” She insisted. 

“Wait, if you can see colors you have met your soulmate too. If you tell me I will tell you” 

“Oh, wouldn’t you want to know? Don’t worry Sam, keep your secret I would figure it out eventually” And with that she left.

Several years past, Sam wasted his time chasing lead of a man that do not wanted to be found, he trained with his bran new wing a gift from Stark. Sokovia fell and two new avengers joined the crew. A year after that, Sam saw Bucky again, while they were chasing him because apparently his soulmate had put a bomb and killed king T’Chaka of Wakanda. Steve didn’t believe Bucky was capable of that, and even if Sam had his doubts, he really wished his soulmate wasn’t a killer… well a worse killer that he had already unwillingly been. 

His life was definitely strange, what if Barnes had never survived the fall would he not have a soulmate, he knew it wasn’t nice thinking about other people death, but he was curious. How could destiny know that seventy years in the future… Or maybe he was one of those rare cases, Sam never got the courage to ask Steve if Bucky had had a soulmate back in his time, he knew Steve have, some girl named Peggy that apparently was the foundress of SHIELD… Steve had told him that when he first came out of the ice and found out he was in the future, the first thing he did was look for Peggy, after all his world was still bright with colors. 

He found her obviously, she had married someone else and had kids and everything, she had been her husband soulmate, which was great. They were one of that rare cases, sometimes when someone lost a soulmate, they could get another one, so his world would remain gray until they found their new soulmate, it happened often when death got to early and the person left was too young, apparently even if destiny was a bitch sometimes, it got some sympathy in it. When Peggy died, Steve confessed Sam that he could still seeing colors.

Sam wanted to talk to Barnes, but it was impossible since he was lock out in a glass prison while Steve and Tony scream at each other over something called the Accords. He had been thinking a lot about Barnes being his soulmate, he got mixed feelings about it he couldn’t figure out if he cared about the man because he was his soulmate or because he believed he was innocent and a good man. He knew that not all soulmates ended together, sometimes they decided just to stay as friends, but for him and Barnes to reach even that point they would have to interact… and he wasn’t sure when that could be a possibility.

And then hell got lose again, the Winter Soldier was back and he was attacking everyone in his way. Sam wasn’t exactly aware of how after that he ended in a very uncomfortable car with Barnes behind him watching Steve kissing Sharon. He didn’t even process that this was probably the best moment to bring the soulmate subject, since it was just, he and Barnes and they didn’t know what would happen in the airport. Steve was getting ready for a fight so, probably nothing nice. 

He fought alongside Barnes against a literal kid in a spandex suit. It felt natural, the fighting and when Bucky put in front of him to block the attack of the kid Sam wondered if he knew that they were soulmates. That didn’t stop the words that came out of his mouth ‘I hate you’ he didn’t mean it truly, but it felt right like a classic banter between friends. But they weren’t friend, they barely knew each other… But that didn’t stop his heart from beating a little bit faster around Bucky. He was in serious trouble.

Sam saw from the grass the quinjet flying away, his chest hurt and he was dealing with a horrifying flash back. But at least Steve and Bucky were leaving… In the raft he kept closing his eyes, he was sure that in any moment the cell would turn gray and he knew it would be his fault, he shouldn’t have told Stark where Bucky and Steve were going, he was probably going to kill them both… well okay no, that wasn’t true, but he was afraid that Zemo managed to get to Bucky again. He realized he didn’t even know Bucky, at least not this one, just the one Steve talked about with a nostalgic expression. He didn’t know him well and yet he cared so deeply about him… the man had suffered a lot, falling to his not certain death, being captured by Hydra, being brainwashed by Hydra, killing against his will, recovering control and phase all the horrifying thing Hydra had made him do, and yet when he found about Zemo’s plan he hadn’t hesitated, he wanted to stop him, Bucky deserved a change to be free and recover. 

When Steve got him out of the Raft, he found out that Bucky had decided to go back into cryogenesis until they figure out how to take the trigger worlds out of his head. Another two years passed, while Natasha, Steve and him became fugitives, they helped now and then, but always running from the American government. They helped Wanda see Vision, the two of them were in love, how? No one knew, but also no one care, Wanda always came happy every time they saw each other. 

Then hell came again and an alien ship appeared out of nowhere in New York and as quick as it came it disappeared with Ironman in it. The biggest fight of their lives was coming and it was possible that they would lose it. Cap left with T’Challa to discuss some stuff about vision, because apparently the shiny stone that vision had in his forehead was some powerful magic stone that the bad guy wanted, so here they were trying to save the world and Vision at the same time.

“Hey” He heard Barnes called him.

“Hey yourself” It wasn’t as awkward as Sam original thought.

“I… I wanted to ask you something” Sam felt his pulse increase. Could it be?

“Yeah sure, what is it?” He tried to remain calm, but it wasn’t easy, Bucky looked really nervous and was playing with his gun.

“Are you… I mean, can you…”

And because life wasn’t easy in that precisely moment hundreds, maybe thousands of aliens appeared in the sky and smashed themselves against the dome, the fight begun. There were to many, he heard Rhodes telling him to be careful, but it was impossible to be careful in this situation, the aliens were everywhere. He saw the big purple dude named Thanos attack everyone, he tried to approach but his wings failed him or most likely Thanos do something to them. He was in the floor trying to get up when his world turned gray, one second after that he died too.

But then he wasn’t dead, it was as if he had passed out or blinked, he could see colors again, which was extremely weird, he got up and called for Rhodes, after all, he was the last one he heard, but he got no response. He moved carefully, he didn’t like the feeling he was having, the forest was too quiet, no sounds of battle. He left the forest and found out that everyone or well half of the earth population had lost five years of his life. And because life is never easy, they had like three seconds to adjust and get ready for a battle. 

They won, but the cost had been huge, perhaps for the rest of the world only heroes had died, but for them, their friends had given up their lives so they could live again… it didn’t seem fair. Sam had spent the last years of his life along side Natasha and Steve and now Natasha was gone forever, apparently not even the magic stone could bring her back. 

Then Steve left too, he went back in time and didn’t come back, he saw him again old and content, he was kind of happy for him, but he was also angry, he could have told him what he was planning or something… He gave him the shield, he promised to try his best but would he be able to do it? Only time would say.

Finally, he was alone with Barnes, with all the time in the world.

“You knew?” Sam asked.

“I figure it out when he said goodbye” They stood side by side, watching the forest.

“So… there’s something I been wanting to ask you for a while…” It was now or never. Sam took a depth breath; he could do this. 

“You are my soulmate” Bucky said simply. Sam thought he might snap his neck with how fast he turned to look at Barnes, he was smiling softly but was moving a little unsure. 

“You are mine too” They smiled at each other.

A long silence followed that, what were they supposed to do now?

>   
> 

Bucky looked at the ceiling, it was creamy white, many years ago he had been in a fight against Steve when he found his soulmate, he didn’t react at first, he couldn’t. His mind screamed, he wasn’t even himself in that moment, he was certain he didn’t even know what a soulmate was right then. But between the sudden colors, and Steve face like he had seen a ghost everything slowly make sense.

After he managed to escape Hydra when the helicarrier fell into the water he had time to think about everything. At first, he thought probably Steve was his soulmate, but as fragments of his past life starting to come, he knew it was not possible. He remembered when Steve came to save him and how after that he told him excited that he had meet this girl and how colors showed, how her hair was brown along with her eyes, but they weren’t the exact same shade. And that memory and every piece he managed to remember from the forties was gray. 

Then he thought that perhaps the redheaded could have been his soulmate, he hated himself because he could remember exactly who he was seeing when colors appeared, the memory was blurry and fragmented as everything else in his life. He invested himself in trying to find everything he could about himself. When he reached the red room project and saw Natasha in it, he knew she wasn’t his soulmate, he focused in those memories, but everything was still gray. 

That left with the other person in the battle, a man with metal wings, it was extremely easy to find information about him, he was a normal citizen, he was properly registered, he had been in the army and now he volunteering at the VA close to his house in Washington DC. The name was Samuel Wilson and he was alive… Bucky got a little scared when he recalled he had kicked him out of helicarrier with his wings broken. He confirmed Sam was his soulmate many years after, with the help of the Wakandian doctors and Shuri, he could pinpoint the first thing he saw with color, and that were brown eyes. 

He tried to talk with Sam, but he got the feeling that every time they stood next to each other it was uncomfortable and being realistic Sam probably hated him, he had fuck up his life… they were together in the car and he asked something nicely and he got a total of two letters in a harsh tone as a response. How could someone ask anyone if they were their soulmate? In the past none of this happened, it was so much easier or at least that was he thought, he never knew a lot of people that had meet their soulmate. 

Steve and him got a lot of time to talk when they were going to Siberia.

“Buck… how you been?” Steve asked.

“Confused” He knew that wasn’t the answer Steve was looking for, but it was the truth. “I should be asking you how are you, I heard about Carter”

“She had a good life” His friend was smiling sadly.

“I must suck right? Seeing everything again gray, the constant reminder that she is gone…” He shouldn’t be taking the conversation through that path, it wasn’t nice.

“Yeah… I mean I haven’t thought it like that” Great, now he had made Steve associated his constant gray world with the death of her love one “I mean probably? But I still… well I didn’t lose. I can still see colors”

That could only mean that Steve had become someone else’s soulmate in the present or that something really weird was happening, probably a gift from destiny if Steve couldn’t live with his soulmate at least he could keep the colors in his life, because it was obvious that he still had a lot to life.

“So… soulmates. I find kind of weird you got directly at that, when we were in the forties you hated the idea of soulmates” Steve said.

“Why?” He wasn’t exactly pleased with his actual soulmate, but it had nothing to do with Sam, more like a constant feeling of frustration, knowing who his soulmate was and not being able to talk to him, getting to know him. 

“Because you used to say it was stupid, that you will be with wherever you wanted, destiny be damned” Steve smiled, the memory probably brought him joy, but Bucky didn’t remember that. That was another sign that he wasn’t the same Bucky that Steve lost in the forties, this new Bucky wanted to know his soulmate, wanted to see what make him so special that destiny had paired them together.

“Oh, I think now…” Should he tell him? Was he even into guy back then? Did he like guy now? Or Steve probably wouldn’t care about that, but he wasn’t sure. Did he feel something for Sam? He barely knew the guy; he knew he was loyal and a good friend to Steve, that he didn’t care if he had been trough hell that didn’t mean he had to overthink every interaction they had. He annoyed him; he had told him that he hated him. Sam had wanted to stop him before he could hurt anyone else and then he helped him in the fight against the spider-kid like he had changed his thoughts about him. And just like that, he realized he had spent the last few minutes thinking about someone, wondering where he stood, what he meant for his soulmate.

“Now what?” Steve asked.

“Nothing” He said.

The hurt face that Tony Stark put when he found out that Steve knew he had killed his parents broke Bucky a little, Steve had found a team a family in the present and now because of him everything was falling apart. He didn’t want to fight but there was no other choice, they were beyond talking. He couldn’t keep living like that after the fight, he asked T’Challa if he could put him under cryo again and he said yes. In the meantime, they would work in taking the words out of his head. 

When he got out of cryogenesis, he found out that there were no more Avengers as a team, that some of them were in house arrest and that Steve, Natasha and Sam were wanted people and that they were on the run like escapees.  
“Who is your soulmate?” Shuri asked him one day and Bucky wasn’t even surprised that she knew being realistic wakandian technology probably could tell if a person saw in gray or in colors.

“Why do you want to know?” He answered her.

“C’mon the lonely and solitary White Wolf had meet someone special I want to know” She told him playfully.  
“Do you believe in that? You know, your soulmate is supposed to be the one you will be happiest and all that stuff” He was totally deflecting the question.

“Probably, my parents were and my brother seems quite happy… I don’t envy them or anything, I’m not ready for love and all that stuff, you should see the way my brother freezes around Nakia” She laughed “Well the only thing that I envy are the colors, because why only them? You know, color should be for everybody”

“Can you invent that? A way for people to defy destiny and see color whenever they wanted” If anyone could do that Bucky was certain that it would be Shuri.

“Perhaps… but you are completely avoiding my question” They laughed and then Bucky left.

An alien attack was coming, apparently the second that had ever happened. Bucky had not choice but to fight again, he was scared, he knew they weren’t alone in the universe but he hoped that the last attack had been a one-time thing. He got ready and found himself alone whit Sam, he knew it was probably the only moment they would have before the fight so he summoned courage and…

“Hey” He said, it wasn’t the best start but it was better than saying nothing.

“Hey yourself” Sam was smiling at him and whoa he had never saw him smile with him around it was a beautiful sight.

“I… I wanted to ask you something” Did he just stutter? Yeah, he definitely stutter, he felt embarrassed.

“Yeah sure, what is it?” Sam seemed so calm that Bucky felt extra nervous, he hadn’t thought about the possibility that maybe he wasn’t Sam’s soulmate. He needed to found first.

“Are you… I mean, can you…” He wanted to ask about the colors, the connection the whatever, but he run out of time. Because aliens appeared and hit the dome. 

The fight was ruthless, he shot everything he could, he even helped a racoon in one point and didn’t have the time to process how weird that was. But then something happened, he felt wrong. And then he died.

Or not? He almost had a heart attack when he opened his eyes and saw the forest gray. But one second after that the colors returned. Had Sam died and come back to life? Had he done the same? He was so confused. But in this line of work there was no time to be confused and a second battle bigger and more impressive was waiting for them.  
He found out that Natasha had died in Stark’s funeral so he mourned them both. He wished he could have talked to Stark at least one last time. And he could give anything to have a change to say goodbye to Natasha. Then Steve got in his white suit and Bucky knew he wasn’t coming back.

“You knew?” Sam asked him, the shield look good on him.

“I figure it out when he said goodbye” He could have stopped him, telling him anything but he didn’t. He just hoped Steve had been happy with his decision.

“So… there’s something I been wanting to ask you for a while…” Bucky smiled, remembering the last time he had tried to ask the same thing, he just knew Sam was about to ask him if they were soulmates, he felt it. So, he decided to put an end to his suffering. 

“You are my soulmate” Bucky said simply. He wasn’t looking at Sam he decided to keep looking at the forest, he was nervous. He had said it, now it all depend on Sam. Would he rejected him? Said that that wasn’t what he was about to ask? 

“You are mine too” Bucky smiled more and turn so he could face Sam, he was smiling too.

A long silence followed; the future was uncertain but he was sure they would make it.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I continue this maybe not. I like how it ended it isn't perfect (I could have written more) but yeah that...  
> Kudos and comments are very appreciated.


End file.
